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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Google developedseveralthemesinitsopening,butitdidsoinawaythatwasfairlydisjointed,
confusing,
and
hard
to
understand.I
have said
before
the key
in
this
case
istomakethehighlytechnicalsubjectmatterhereaccessibletoordinarypeople,whoarenotcomputerscientists.IthinkGoogle’sattorneygotabitlostinthetrees,buthedidpointoutsomeimportanttrees.

on theLangpatents,butonacomplexbutdifferentsystem
forreturninginformationtotheuser.Hisexplanationwasdifficulttounderstand.Butthismaybe
a goodthingforthem.PerhapsGoogle’sstrategyistomaketheinformationhard
to understand, on the theory that if the
jury can’t understand exactly howGoogle’ssystem
works,howcantheyconcludethatGoogleinfringed?While
Idoubtthatthiswastheiractualstrategy,perhapsitwillbe the
effect.

He also
said
thatthere
was
prior
artbefore
the
Langpatents
thatspoke
to
the
issue
ofcombiningcontentbasedandcollaborativefiltering.Basedonthepriorart,hefeels
thatthe
Lang
patents
are
notvalid.

On damages,hespoketothevalueofthepatentsinrelationto(1) what
Plaintiff
paidtopurchasethepatentsin2011($3.2million),(2)whatGooglepaidtoDisneyforlicenseandpurchaseofadvertisingpatents($5million),and(3)whatGooglepaid
to Carl
Meyer for
license
and purchase
of
search
advertising
patents ($3.55million).HepointedoutthatwhilePlaintiffonlyjustboughtthepatentsfor$3.2million,theyarenowclaimingthepatentsentitledthem
toabout$1billioninpastand
future
royalties.

.....

Evidence willshowthatbeforeGooglelauncheditsSmartsystem,ithadactually

cited
the 420 patent in
one of its own patent
applications.Nowdamages.

You willhearfrom
Dr.StephenBeckerontheissueofroyalties.Thequestionisnot

[Plays a2006audioclipofaGoogleemployee,StevenGlassman]:“forwhichSmartASSgivesus
is roughly
a 20 percent higher clicker rate
for
the ads
we show, whichmeansthatwecanshowthesamenumberofadsandget20percentmoreclicksandmake20percentmoremoney....AndSmartASSbasicallyletsus,youknow,
be good
and rich
for
that.

Remember, Lycosownedthesepatentsforover10years.Theyneverimplementedthem,theynevertoldGoogle“you’reinfringing,youneedalicense.”NowPlaintiffistelling
you
Lycos
would
have
sat down
andnegotiated,sayingGoogleowesthem
abillion
dollars.
That’s not reasonable.
"